Chapter 676: Lynn! You Have Really Made Me Angry

Against the burning skyline.

She raised her head emptily, staring at the sea of ashes. The blazing sky reflected across her cheeks like the lonely final moment when the flames die out.

This was the scene she had lived through three thousand years ago.

And now.

This space unflinchingly laid out, in bloody detail, the despair she most refused to touch in her memories.

As Cyber had done when facing the darkness that burned his entire civilization—ruthless, merciless—the projection pierced through their past.

"No."

Her fist clenched violently.

Her teeth ground tighter.

In the crimson glow of the fire, little by little, a sliver of clarity struggled to surface in her eyes.

That small shard of the Colossus's Heart she had swallowed was, at this moment, gradually exerting a tiny effect.

Because everything was in the past.

This was nothing but an illusion projected by this space to bind her, and she was no longer the naive deity she once had been. Even though hatred filled her heart, she could not return to that era three thousand years ago, nor change what had been lost.

Now!

Everything was an obstruction of the mind!

She abruptly lifted her head, veins crawling across the skin around her eyes in a hideous map.

And she knew very well that in the Colossus's projection, the more you cower, the more you cannot escape the shadows of the past, the stronger the enemy you fear becomes. The only way to break through this mental barrier was to face that past and fight with every ounce of strength!

She forced her consciousness to pry itself away.

Refusing to let the projection here affect her.

"Lynn, you have really made me angry!"

She gritted her teeth, eyes bloodshot, roots sprouting under her feet. Endless creeping vines fanned out from her like a tide, searching for traces of that human.

The projection of that Calamity would attack her sooner or later.

She knew she could not escape.

But before that, riding on the sliver of clarity brought by the Colossus's Heart fragment, she would crush that bastard! She would make him know exactly what it meant to cross her!

…

In the distance of the forest.

A pair of eyes pierced through the dense, burning canopy and watched that grotesquely trembling girl from afar.

With a flash of intent, Lynn moved nimbly through the trees.

The substantive projection here had completely altered the terrain, and above them the sky had become a furious, burning expanse.

Lynn had been drawn into the Desire Mother Tree's illusion.

But because he was not its target,

he did not suffer the projection's worst effects. The darkness in the sky would not deliberately aim at him.

Clearly,

even Root-level beings had their perception comprehensively restricted inside this horrifying illusion.

If he could escape the area covered by the projection during this window, he could break Desire Mother Tree's control and regain his freedom.

"Is this your true past?"

Lynn adjusted his monocle and bounded from one burning crown to the next.

"Looks like you were right. You're not a truly evil god. Sorry, our positions are opposed, and I can't actually take you to devour the Colossus's Brain. If you weren't the Desire Mother Tree, we might've become friends."

He landed on the ash-covered ground without hesitation.

He also believed that after experiencing such soul-rending cataclysm thirty centuries ago, the goddess's mindset must have changed drastically.

Maybe a strand of the past's beauty and yearning still lingered in her heart, but after so much burning, loss, and scar tissue, it was likely peeled away clean. Even if it wasn't, she certainly wouldn't show it easily; it would be hidden beneath layer upon layer of masks, permanently suppressed in the depths of her heart.

And that made her dangerous.

Perhaps if one risked awakening that softness in her heart, she could truly become a devoted friend and family member.

But Lynn would not gamble.

If he lost, he would be forever controlled by this terrifying Root and might even lose his life.

He longed for ideals, but he was not the kind of saint who would casually sacrifice himself for pure redemption. He yearned, but would not mimic blindly.

Lynn's gaze was full of reason.

Unquestionably,

the experiences of the past months had matured his mind greatly, changing how he viewed things so that he was no longer as naive and passionate as before.

If you put him back in the Happy Home months ago, would he have rushed in then to save the unfamiliar Alice without thinking? He would probably weigh things carefully now and think twice.

Because people change.

Whether you can find the right measure depends on your personal cultivation.

He launched into a leap, rolled, dropped to one knee, and pushed his monocle back into place, eyes scanning the horizon with depth.

He could already make out the blood mist ahead.

That meant the projection's border should be just beyond, and if he stepped over it, he could leave this illusion.

The area was not far from where Sir Aiwen was located. If he could quickly rendezvous with Zuo Zuo, then use the Colossus's Heart permissions to help Sir Aiwen seal that projection, they could seize the initiative here!

He only hoped everything would go smoothly.

He stepped forward to leap.

But at that moment, a sudden chill rose up his spine, freezing his step.

His heart jolted.

As he looked around,

a breeze stirred.

The burning trees around him, like mirages in water, slowly undulated, and when he came fully to his senses, he found himself standing in a street both familiar and strange.

"Damn… this can't be…"

Lynn recoiled one step.

Car horns slowly sounded in his ears, crowds churned in the distance, a cold wind from the North and Siberia brushed the deep blue sky, and far off a passenger plane glided slowly across the height.

Lynn froze.

The abrupt change in scene made him instantly understand what was happening.

This space…

had it also materialized the scene he had been brooding over in his own heart?!